Max Verstappen wants Red Bull to work out why he was suffering with inconsistent brakes in the United States Grand Prix that left him under pressure from Lewis Hamilton.
A comfortable win in the sprint on Saturday left Verstappen as a clear favorite even though he was starting from sixth place, and the Dutchman made steady progress early on. Once leading he was vocal on team radio about his brakes and Hamilton’s strategy saw him close in late on to run most of the final lap within 2s of the leader.
“I made a good start and in the first stint I tried to be patient but at the same time following for so long did hurt my tires a little bit,” Verstappen said. “At the same time I was struggling a lot with the brakes compared to yesterday, so I couldn’t really be that nice to the tires under braking, just being very inconsistent. That basically carried on for the rest of the race, which compared to yesterday that was quite a big factor because I never really had a lot of confidence to be consistent under braking.
“Nevertheless I think as a team we did the right strategy, we pitted at the right time, and basically because of that I could work my way forward. I think we did everything correct today but I was hoping for a little bit more pace because I think yesterday we were a lot more competitive.”
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Elaborating on the issue, Verstappen said he was receiving regular messages when he was trying to focus on braking and felt the need to tell his race engineer not to speak to him in braking zones.
“I just couldn’t feel the brakes,” he said. “I very easily locked the fronts and I tried to adjust it and was locking the rears. It was something very weird because normally I never really have issues with the braking. So this is just something we need to understand why that was today, because when you are locking the fronts or rears you are also killing your tires so that definitely didn’t help today compared to yesterday. Yesterday, the feeling I had with the car was really amazing, but today it was not that great, but nevertheless we still won the race.
“On the speaking under braking — when you’re struggling already under braking and you’re not that confident, I politely asked not to be spoken to. You’re laughing there, but I said ‘please’ when I asked!”
Verstappen also joked his milestone 50th victory — leaving him one behind Alain Prost on the all-time list — still pales into insignificance compared to Hamilton’s total.
“Of course it’s a great number — still rookie numbers compared to Lewis! But for sure it’s a great number; I’m very happy with it, very proud of it, but let’s try to win a few more.”